In the mid 1920's, the Crosley Radio Company of America produced a
very small, single valve radio receiver. Owing to its size, they
named it the Pup. When they came to advertise this radio, they naturally
used the image of a dog to do so - in much the same way as His Master's
Voice had done with the image of Nipper looking into a gramophone.
The advert showed a small terrier-like dog sitting next to a Crosley Pup
wearing headphones - the main way of listening to the radio.

Quite how this image came to be altered, and Bonzo became used as their
three-dimensional promotional figure is unclear. However soon after
its release, the Old King Cole Inc. company of Canton, Ohio were commissioned
to produce large papier mâché figures of Bonzo sitting with
his front paws supporting him and wearing a pair of headphones. Embossed
into the headphone band on his head was "Crosley Pup". He is an impressive
9 inches tall and 8 inches long.

The Store Display Model

The manufacturers paper label that was placed inside the model, near
its hollow base.

The 'Domesticated' Pup

Crosleys also had made many smaller 'pups' from a chalk composite, which
just had the word "Crosley" incised on the headband. These were made
to sell for $1 to meet the demand from customers in the radio shops who
wanted to buy the larger store display piece for themselves. This
chap is 4½ inches tall and 5½ long.

If anybody can help in shedding more light on this connection between
Bonzo and Crosley, please let me know and I'll be happy to use the information
to update this page.